Cloud services are widely used to provide many types of functionality including hosting applications, providing access to data storage, providing web sites, email or other functionality. Cloud services typically run on a network of computer systems that may be located remotely to each other. The computer network may be configured to provide the various services using virtual machines. The services may be scaled by adding or removing virtual machines as needed. For instance, at times of peak load, additional virtual machines may be instantiated, while at times of reduced load, virtual machines may be shut down. In some cases, virtual machines may be shut down only to be immediately brought back up again due to an increase in load. This scenario is often referred to as “flapping”.